Tent



March 10, 1970 wARlNG I ET AL 3,499,457

TENT

Filed July 31, 1967 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 FIG] I nventors Attornqyg March 10,1970 WARING ET AL TENT Filed July 31, 1967 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 lnver lorsMarch 10, 1970 I w N ET AL 3,499,457

TENT

Filed July 31, 1967 I 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 Attorneys March 10, 1970. w N ETAL 3,499,457

I TENT Filed July 31, 1967 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 A llorneyS United StatesPatent 3,499,457 TENT Raymond Hugh Waring, 17 Kingfisher Court, BridgeRoad, East Molesey, Surrey, England, and David Malcolm Brohn, TunnelHouse, Saltford, Somerset, England Filed July 31, 1967, Ser. No. 657,340

Claims priority, application Great Britain, Aug. 5, 1966,

Int. Cl. A45f 1/16 US. Cl. 1353 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Aframe for a tent has a plurality of upright members each of whichconsists of upper and lower struts, pivotally or detachably connected ator adjacent to a knee joint so that the upper strut can adopt aninclined position when the lower strut is substantially vertical. Theknee joint limits any relative movement between the upper and lowerstruts. A crown unit connects the upper ends of the upper struts and atension element interconnects the uprights at or adjacent the kneejoints.

This invention relates to tents and especially to a tent having aself-supporting frame. It is an object of the invention to provide animproved tent which will be easy to erect, rigid, and light andeconomical to manufacture.

According to the present invention there is provided a tent comprising atent frame and a tent canopy adapted to be suported internally of thetent frame, the tent frame having a plurality of upright members, eachupright member comprising upper and lower struts, a knee joint for eachupright member connecting together said upper and said lower struts toenable the upper strut to adopt an inclined position when the lowerstrut is substantially vertical, the knee joint limiting any relativemovement between said upper and lower struts, a crown unitinterconnecting the upper ends of the upper struts, a tension elementincorporated into the tent canopy, the tension element being adapted tobe connected to the upright members at the knee joints and to extendaround the circumference of the whole frame so as to tension the latterand detachable tensioning means for giving the tension element asubstantial positive predetermined tension.

The provision of the tension element incorporated into the tent canopy,the latter being supported within the tent frame, achieves the abovestated objects of the present invention.

In the past it was necessary, especially with large family tents, to tiethe tent canopy to the frame in a large number of places. This operationwas, in fact, very time consuming. It will be appreciated that the tentof the present invention, by virtue of the tension element, not onlystresses the tent frame to produce a rigid structure but, at the sametime, can attach the tent fabric in a taut condition to the tent frame.Thus, the tent is erected more easily and faster than previous tents andadditionally allows larger tents of this general form.

The feet of the frame are pegged down to locate them relative to eachother and to prevent overturning. The structural interaction of theframe and the complete canopy with its tension elements eliminates theneed for guy ropes.

The crown unit may positively limit relative movement of the respectiveupper struts towards one another,

3,499,457 Patented Mar. 10, 1970 and preferably has means for allowingthe upper struts to move pivotally towards the horizontal.

Preferably, the knee joints allow the upper and lower struts to pivotrelative to each other, abutments on the knee joints restrainingdownward vertical movement of the upper strut away from a predeterminedposition.

Preferably there is provided a second tension element which may beincorporated into the tent canopy and adapted to interconnect the lowerends of the lower struts.

The knee joints may be detachably connected to said upper and lowerstruts.

The tent canopy may be integral with a ground sheet.

The invention is illustrated, merely by way of example, in theaccompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a side elevation of a tent according to one embodiment ofthe invention,

FIGURE 2 is a plan of the tent shown in FIGURE 1,

FIGURE 3 is an enlarged view of the knee joint of the tent shown inFIGURE 1,

FIGURE 4 is a part-view in section of the crown unit of the tent shownin FIGURE 2,

FIGURE 5 is a section along the line 5--5 of FIG- URE 4,

FIGURE 6 shows part of an exploded section of a further embodiment ofthe present invention,

FIGURE 7 shows a broken-away side view of the crown unit according tothe embodiment shown in FIG- URE 6,

FIGURE 8 shows a plan view of the crown unit shown in FIGURE 7,

FIGURE 9 shows a tension adjustment device for use with this invention,and

FIGURE 10 shows a modification of the tension adjustment device shown inFIGURE 9.

Referring to FIGURES 1 and 2, the frame, generally shown at 9, for atent canopy 10, consists of four uprights 11 meeting at the centre ofthe roof and forming a unit 23 which is generally square in plan, asshown in FIGURE 2. Each upright consists of upper 13 and lower struts 14of approximately the same length and formed of steel tubes. Each strutmay be telescopic, or formed in detachable lengths for ease of packing.These upper and lower struts are pivotally connected at a knee joint 15.

The knee joint (best shown in FIGURE 3) comprise two tubular brackets16- and 17 connected by a horizontal pivot pin 18. The brackets havelugs 20, 21 which act as abutments to prevent the two brackets closingtowards one another beyond a limiting position in which the includedangle a is approximately One of these abutments 20 is provided with anadjustable screw-threaded stop 22 to allow adjustment of this limitingangular position. The pivot pins 18 of the knees preferably includebutterfly-nut tightening means (not shown) to provide a degree ofstiffness at the knee joints, and the joints may also include bushes ofpolytetrafluoroethylene (not shown) to prevent the joints locking.

The upper ends 13 of the upper struts are all pivotally connected to acrown unit 23, best shown in FIGURES 4 and 5. The crown unit 23comprises a square plate 24 having pairs of spaced downwardly projectingears 25 at its four corners. The upper end 13 of each strut is rigidlyconnected to a short flange 26 which extends between a pair of the ears25 and is pivotally attached by a bolt 27 passing through the ears andthrough a hole in the flange. The inner end 28 of each flange 26 islimited in its upward movement by an adjustable screwthreaded stop 31mounted in an adjacent part of the crown unit. The crown unit 23 hasrigidly fixed to it a hook 29 to which is attached the apex of the tentcanopy 10.

In the illustrated embodiment, a tension element 32 is incorporated intothe fabric of the canopy so that the positioning of the tension elementand the erection of the canopy may be performed in one operation. Thetension element consists of a steel cable or cord or some other tensilematerial but may be rigid extending around the frame at the height ofthe knee joints and is conveniently attached by means of hooks 33beneath lug 21 on the knee-joints 15. This cable may be formed as acomplete loop of selected length, as shown in FIGURES 1 and 2, butpreferably consists of a length of cable with end attachments (notshown). In any case the length of the tension element is such that whenin its final condition it is susbtantially stressed in tension and thustends to force each of the upper struts 13 downwardly about its upperpivotal connection 27 to the crown unit 23. Since the pivotal movementof each upper strut 13 in this direction is limited by the stops 31 onthe crown unit 23, the four upper struts and the tension element 32together form a stressed rigid roof truss. Another somewhat similartension element 37 is provided for attachment to the lower end of eachof the lower struts 14 and is also incorporated into the fabric of thecanopy 10.

In order to collapse the frame of the tent according to this embodimentof the invention, the tension element 32 is released and the tent canopyremoved so that the lower strut 14 of each upright 11 can be swungoutwards and upwards about the knee joint until it lies alongside theupper strut 13. The four upper struts 13 can then be swung to ahorizontal position about the crown unit 23 until upper and lower strutsare parallel with each other, and all are in the same plane, all thestruts can then be collapsed telescopically forming a neat compact unit.

A further embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIGURES 6 to8. The frame of this embodiment consists of a number of rigid tubularmembers which are detachably connected together so as to produce a framethat can be collapsed.

The frame consists of lower struts 40 in each of whose upper ends isrigidly fixed a spigot 41. Each spigot 41 fits into the end of a hollowknee joint '42 which consists of an arcuate piece of tube 43, thetangents at whose ends include the angle a which is approximately 125.Each knee joint 42 has a hook 44 at the centre thereof which receives atension element 45. A recess 46 is provided at the upper end of eachknee joint 42, the recess 46 being adapted to receive a lug 47 on aspigot 48 of an upper strut 51. This recess and lug connection preventsthe knee and upper strut pivoting with respect to each other. The upperend of each upper strut 51 has a spigot 52 and a further lug '53attached thereto for engagement with one of four recesses '54 in a crownunit 55 shown in FIGURE 8. The crown unit 55 is formed of tubes 56 whichmay be welded together or fixed together by any other suitable means. Asshown in FIG- URE 7, the crown unit 55 has a hook 57 to which isattached the apex of the tent 58.

The erection of the tent in both embodiments of the present invention issimilar. When the frame 9 has been erected a tent canopy 10 is hungwithin the frame 9 and the tension element attached to the frame andgiven a substantial positive predetermined tension. The tent canopy 10is formed of a water-proof canvas or other fabric and is tailored to theshape of the frame. Hooks, eyes or other fastening members are providedto secure the canvas to the crown unit.

Referring to FIGURE 9 there is shown a tension adjustment device 61which is hammer-shaped. The tension adjustment device has a head 62 anda handle 63, thehead having an impact portion 64 and a tang 65. To theimpact portion 64 attached, bywelding, screwing .4 T or other means astud 66 and to the tang 65 a fin 67. The head 64 is secured to thehandle not only by means of a usual arrangement for fixing the handle tothe head of a hammer, but also by means of a bracket 68, brazed orotherwise suitably fixed to the impact portion 64. The bracket 68 has anut and bolt arrangement 71 passing through a flange 72 on the bracketand through the handle 63. The fin 67 has an arcuate surface 73 and isfitted into a slot 74 in the tube 43. The arcuate surface 73 facilitatesmovement of the handle 72 downwardly, the head '62 of the tensionadjustment device following the path shown by the broken arrow.

In operation, the tension element 32 is wrapped around the imp-actportion 64 and stud 66 of the tension adjustment device when it is inthe position as shown in FIG- URE 9. The handle 63 is moved downwardlytensioning the tension element 32 and thus the frame of the tent. Thetensional element 32 is retained on the hooks 44 by means of endattachments, not shown, such as rings, loops or other suitable meansprovided on the tension element, thus transferring the strain from thetension adjustment device to the frame of the tent. The tensionadjustment device may then be removed.

FIGURE 10 shows an alternative arrangement in which the impact portion64 of a tension adjustment device has a hook 75 to which the tensionelement is affixed whilst tensioning the element.

The tension adjustment device has been shown in conjunction with theembodiment of the invention shown in FIGURES 6 to 8. It is obvious thatit can be used with the embodiment of FIGURES 1 to 5 also and can beused to stress the tension element 37.

In accordance with standard practice the canopy may be provided withdoors, windows, porches and the like and it preferably includes asewn-in ground sheet 60. The canopy may also include a sewn-in ordetachable inner tent compartment. It will be noted that since the tentcanopy 10 is entirely within the frame it is extremely simple to attachand there is no need for the laborious process of placing the tentcanopy over the frame. If the fabric has sufficient strength the canopyitself may afford one or both tension elements, if necessary withreinforcement of the fabric.

The lower ends of the lower struts are provided with anchorages to pegthe complete unit to the ground.

It will be appreciated that the crown unit may be elongate so that theinvention is not limited to a simple pyramidal structure but can also beapplied to elongated frames with horizontal ridge struts or trussesforming part of the crown unit.

We claim:

1. A tent comprising a tent frame and a tent canopy adapted to besupported internally of the tent frame, the tent frame having aplurality of upright members, each upright member comprising upper andlower struts, a knee joint for each upright member connecting togethersaid upper and said lower struts to enable the upper strut to adopt aninclined position when the lower strut is substantially vertical, theknee joint including means for limiting any relative movement betweensaid upper and lower struts, a crown unit interconnecting the upper endsof the upper struts, said crown unit including means for positivelylimiting the relative pivotal movement of the respective inclined upperstruts toward one another a tension element incorporated into the tentcanopy, the tension element being adapted to be connected to the uprightmembersat the knee joint in a manner stressing said tension element andto extend around the circumference of the whole frame so as to tensionthe latter, said tension element and said upper struts forming astressed rigid. roof truss, and detachable tensioning means for givingthe tension element a substantial positive predetermined tension, and acontinuous second tension ele ment incorporated into the tent canopy andadapted to interconnect the lower ends of the lower struts.

2. A tent as claimed in claim 1 in which the crown unit has means forallowing the upper struts to move pivotally towards the horizontal.

3. A tent as claimed in claim 1 in which the knee joints are detachablyconnected to said upper and lower struts.

4. A tent as claimed in claim 1 in which the knee joints allow the upperand lower struts to pivot relative to each other and the means forlimiting relative movement of the struts comprises an abutment on eachof the knee joints restraining downward vertical movement of the upperstrut away from a predetermined position.

5. A tent as claimed in claim 1 in which said tent canopy is integralwith a ground sheet.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,820,002 8/1931 Forrester 13542,928,404 3/ 1960 Klages 135-4 3,059,658 10/1962 Finlayson 135-43,168,101 2/1965 Porter 135-3 X 3,181,542 5/1965 Bareis 135-4 3,351,07811/1967 Kleiman 1351 3,374,797 3/1968 Neumark 1351 PETER M. CAUN,Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 135-4

